Simple Ways to Improve Truck Fuel Mileage

Slow Down to the Posted Speed Limits. If you stay within the speed limit, or about 1 to 2 miles below the limit, you will not have to constantly brake or speed up to stay with the flow of traffic.

Perform Regular Preventive Maintenance. Regular preventive maintenance helps your truck in a big way to run more efficiently and burn less fuel.

Maintain Proper Tire Pressure on all 18 wheels. Check tire pressure as part of your daily pre-trip and post-trip inspection routine using a good quality tire pressure gauge, -and no, using a tire thumper or baseball bat doesn’t cut it.

Scale and Balance out the cargo-weight on the trailer. Balancing out the load on the trailer allows the truck to operate at optimum efficiency and not using any more fuel than is necessary. This is a good practice to maintain, not to mention keeping you out of the DOT Weigh Station for being overweight on a set of axles. This strategy has a big safety advantage as well. A poorly balanced load can cause a rollover, and many drivers have reported additional fatigue caused by the increased difficulty in steering, reduced braking power, and general instability from a wobbly load.

Practice Smooth, Progressive Shifting of Gears (avoid sudden starts and stops). Rough driving not only causes excessive wear and tear on the truck, but also uses more fuel. One of the hall marks of a professional driver is the smooth shifting of gears and starting out in the correct gear. Use the correct gear for the conditions and also practice down-shifting as smoothly as you up-shift.

Time your transit through major cities and heavy traffic zones. Whenever possible, time your travel through heavy traffic areas when you are more likely to roll through without being caught in stop and go traffic. It takes more fuel, time and energy for a large, heavy commercial truck to weed through heavy traffic. It also adds significantly to driver fatigue and increased chances for accidents from aggressive drivers cutting in and out of your lane in rush hours.

Use the Truck’s Cruise-Control and Avoid the Speeding Truck Convoys. Out on the open road using cruise control feature is more fuel efficient than gunning the pedal to the floor, even when the truck is governed with maximum speed rating.

Install an Auxiliary Power Unit (APU). If you don’t already have this on your truck, go out and have it installed. An APU allows you to turn off your truck and provides the electrical, heating or air-conditioning that your truck would normally provide when running. It helps you save on wear and tear, and uses far less fuel than idling the engine all night long.

Use the correct type of fluids. Engine manufactures do recommend particular types of motor oils for their engines and have the research to back their claims of better performance. -So use the recommended type and grade of motor oil and other fluids to eke out the best fuel performance for your truck.